by Brian Jeffery
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Sor’s Grand Solo is of course a famous piece, exceptional in its dimensions and played by many performers. This article closely examines the earliest known sources of Grand Solo and demonstrates that the version of it in the three earliest known sources is for seven-string guitar.
This article then also describes the processes whereby that original seven-string version of Grand Solo was later adapted for six-string guitar and lists modern editions of each of the two versions.
Three early sources
Perhaps the earliest of the so far known sources of the piece known as Grand Solo is the manuscript Mus 721-16 in the Biblioteca Histórica Municipal (BHM) in Madrid. The BHM have put it online where you can freely consult or download it if you wish (online search Biblioteca Histórica Municipal Madrid, Catálogo, then search “Fernando Sor”). It is hard to date, but at a guess this manuscript may date from within the period 1800 to 1808. The title of the piece in this manuscript is Sonata 1a. Here is its beginning, in which you will see that it gives the instruction to tune the sixth string down to D:
Another early source is a manuscript in the Saltoun collection (call number ML31.S25, Box-Folder 3/7) in the Library of Congress in Washington DC in the US. The Library of Congress have not yet made it downloadable but they kindly provided me with a scanned copy. The manuscript gives no individual title for the piece although there is an overall title-page with the words “Grandes Sonatas Compuestas por Dn. Fernando Sors”. Again the manuscript is difficult to date but it may date from about 1800 to about 1810. Its text is close to the text of the BHM manuscript. Here is its beginning, in which you will see that this manuscript also gives the instruction to tune the sixth string down to D:
Probably the next source in date order is the edition published by Salvador Castro de Gistau in Paris in about 1810-11 (I take this date from the preface by Mario Torta to the 2016 edition by Mario Torta and Frédéric Zigante of the edition of Grand Solo published in Paris by Porro, on which see below). This Castro edition is available in a new re-engraved edition on the Tecla website (at www.tecla.com search “Grand Solo”), also in facsimile in my 1982 facsimile edition of Sor’s guitar works, and also it is freely downloadable from Gallica; in Gallica search Fernando Sor. Its title in Castro is Sonata prima. Its text is close to the text of the BHM manuscript and of the Saltoun manuscript. Here is its beginning, in which you will see that this Castro edition also gives the instruction to tune the sixth string down to D:
So these three earliest sources for Sor’s Grand Solo which are so far known to us, in which the texts closely correspond to each other, all begin with an instruction to tune the sixth string down to D. That certainly gives wonderful sonorities, for example in the passage at the end of the piece which is on page 7 of the Castro edition and at corresponding places in the BHM and Saltoun manuscripts. But if we tune the sixth string down to D we then have difficulty or awkwardness in playing quite a few passages in all three sources, two actually being impossible to play as written.
It is certainly a puzzle. What exactly is going on here? So in order to investigate this puzzle, let’s be precise. Here are the places which are actually impossible to play as written in all three sources if the sixth string is tuned down to D.
Here they are in the Castro edition (at page 2 line 4 bar 5 and page 2 line 6 bar 4):
Here are the same two places in the BHM manuscript:
And here are the same two places in the Saltoun manuscript:
You will see that the impossibility exists in all three sources, so the puzzle applies to all three sources.
There are also more places in all three sources where if the sixth string is tuned down to D it is possible to play the notes as written but it is awkward or difficult. Here are two:
In Castro (page 2 line 4 bar 2 and page 2 line 5 last bar):
Here are the same two places in the BHM manuscript:
And here are the same two places in the Saltoun manuscript:
Here again the problem passages are the same in the BHM and Saltoun manuscripts as they are in the Castro edition so that the problem applies to all three sources.
If we try to play these possible but troublesome places with our sixth string tuned down to D we can do so by stopping those low E’s on the low D string at the second fret, but then we have problems with playing other notes at the same time that are in a higher register. It is often difficult or awkward and sometimes it even seems absurd to do this when it looks very much as though an open bass E is called for. It would be much easier in these places, not to mention less awkward or even less absurd, and the two impossible places would become possible, if we had both open D and open E basses.
So is there a way in which we can have not only an open bass D but also an open bass E?
Yes, indeed there is.
Seven strings
The key to this matter is to look closely and analytically at the notation in these three sources, at the actual notation of the music, to do what is called a close reading of the notation, while setting all else aside for the moment. If we do that we see that our three earliest known sources of Grand Solo tell us repeatedly in their notation that this piece needs both open-D and open-E basses.
So if the notation of the piece tells us that both a low D and also a low E are required, that means that Sor’s Grand Solo, at least in this present version that comes down to us in these three earliest known sources, is in fact a work for a seven-string guitar, that is to say a guitar with the normal six strings and also with an added seventh bass string tuned to D. That solution accords with the notation, solves the puzzle of the impossible or difficult places, and makes the piece reasonably easy to play, and it means that we have a piece with balance between a sonorous bass and a higher register with plenty of action. This has not previously been pointed out, as far as I know.
The question arises: do our three earliest known sources, with their requirement for seven strings, give us the form in which Sor originally composed this piece? Well, it is extremely likely that they do, but we cannot say that it is absolutely certain, because we do not have direct documentary evidence about this piece from the time between its composition and our three earliest known sources. What we can say for absolutely certain is that the version of Grand Solo which we find in the three earliest known sources, with its requirement for seven strings, is the earliest version that we currently have.
To see the musical benefit of having both a bass D and a bass E, we need look no further than the opening bars of Grand Solo where we see the opening with the low open D, then in the very next bar the low E (doubtless open), then in bar 4 the low F sharp perhaps stopped on the low D.
Guitars with seven strings certainly existed in Spain in Sor’s time. Moretti tells us in his 1799 Principios, in a footnote to a Prólogo in that book, that he himself played on one: “Yo utilizo de la Guitarra de siete órdenes sencillos” (‘I play on a guitar with seven strings’); Vargas y Guzmán in the eighteenth century referred to seven-string guitars; and Sor himself refers to various sizes of guitar in his article “Le Bolero”.
But if Grand Solo is for seven-string guitar, then why do these three earliest known sources all give the instruction to tune the sixth string down to D?
The most likely reason is that those sources (or more probably the now lost sources of those sources) were offering a way of making the piece, composed perhaps years earlier for a seven-string guitar, at least playable in some way on the six-string guitars that most people, including buyers of music, had both in Spain and France at that time. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but it was at least a solution because it covered most of the music while leaving relatively few problems.
There is some evidence that players in those years in Spain might have been expected to be capable of improvising to solve such problems, for example that although the BHM and Saltoun manuscripts do indeed correspond to each other in their texts, sometimes they differ in details. Notably both of those manuscripts include the instruction “Arp” or “Arpo” to indicate arpeggiation, thus evidently leaving the details of the arpeggiation up to the player. So where the instruction to tune the sixth string down to D caused problems, those problems could be left up to the player to solve much more readily than they usually could today.
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The edition of Pierre-Jean Porro
Let’s move on to the probable next source in time, namely the edition of Grand Solo published in Paris by Pierre-Jean Porro in about 1811-12. I take this date again from the preface by Mario Torta to the 2016 edition of this Porro edition by Mario Torta and Frédéric Zigante. Here is its beginning:
When we examine the Porro edition and compare it with the BHM and Saltoun manuscripts and the Castro edition, we find the following:
Porro follows closely the text of those three earliest known sources but has made changes by which he carefully adapted the music for a six-string guitar.
At the two places in the three early sources that are impossible to play as written (in Castro they come at page 2 line 4 bar 5 and page 2 line 6 bar 4), Porro has put the low E up an octave in the first case, and in the second case has simply deleted the low E, thus solving the problems.
And at the two places which I cited which in the three early sources were awkward to play (in Castro at page 2 line 4 bar 2 and page 2 line 5 last bar), in the first case Porro deleted the low E and in the second case he put the low E up an octave, thus again solving those two problems. In the rest of the piece he several times either deletes a low note or puts it up an octave thus solving problems.
Porro is the first known source to give the title Grand Solo to this piece.
Porro adds many indications which he calls “Nuances”, which by the way are not the same as the few dynamic indications that are in the BHM manuscript. (The Castro edition has only the marking “Andante” at the beginning and no further indications, while the Saltoun manuscript has no dynamics at all.)
At bar 7 Porro has simplified what was a difficult place to play (it had nothing to do with D or E basses). That was sensible on his part, in my opinion.
So with Porro we are looking at a practical and sensible edition made and adapted for the six-string guitar. Close examination shows that he must have worked from an edition that was either the Castro edition itself or was a manuscript in that same family which had low notes which gave problems for six-string guitars, and Porro either deleted those problematic low notes or put them up an octave thus solving the problems. In addition he sensibly made that change at bar 7 which has nothing to do with low notes but which made the piece easier to play. Porro has added many dynamics or “nuances”, and not only has he added them but he specifically writes: “Observez bien les Nuances” (‘Take care to observe the nuances”), which is a very unusual instruction. And it seems to have been Porro who with a stroke of genius gave the piece its title which has lasted for more than two centuries: Grand Solo.
So in my opinion Porro’s edition of 1811-12 is admirable and I recommend it for players who don’t have a seven-string guitar.
Meissonnier’s 1822 edition
As we saw, Porro published his edition in about 1811-12. About ten years passed before our next known early source was published, namely the Meissonnier edition of 1822. It was advertised in Paris on 7 April 1822 with the words “vient de paraître” (‘has just appeared’) when Sor was in London not in Paris (see Josep Maria Mangado’s Fernando Sor volume 2, page 154) and it is available to us in the 1976 facsimile edition of Sor’s music made by Frederick Noad. An examination of this 1822 Meissonnier edition shows that it is drastically simplified when compared to our three earliest known sources or to Porro. Again this edition puts low notes up an octave or removes them, and while one might perhaps accept as reasonable Meissonnier’s removal of the section in five flats as being in a key unfamiliar to many guitarists, at bar 7 where Porro gave a sensible and easy alternative to a difficulty, this Meissonnier 1822 edition has turned the bar into six dreary and identical chords.
So it looks as though for this 1822 edition Meissonnier worked from a source which was either Castro or else a manuscript in the same family, but has drastically simplified it.
This Meissonnier edition has the title Grand Solo, even though it seems to have been Porro who first gave this piece that name. We don’t know under what arrangement with Porro, if any, Meissonnier used the title Grand Solo.
Meissonnier’s edition of 1825-27
In about 1825-27, that is to say at a time in most of which Sor was in Russia, there followed a different Meissonnier edition. This new version adapts for six-string guitar the version of our three earliest known sources. In modernizing the work for six-string guitar it follows a similar procedure to that of Porro, that is to say putting awkward low notes up an octave or deleting them, so that it is not easy to see whether Meissonnier was copying Porro or was doing his own adapting.
At bar 7 this new Meissonnier edition does not follow Porro’s sensible change at that point but instead even restores the original two troublesome and rather difficult to play grace notes, from which we may guess that Meissonnier’s source here was not Porro’s edition because if it were he might well have adopted Porro’s sensible change at that point, but rather the version which we know from our three earliest known sources.
The Meissonnier 1825–27 edition is available in my 1982 facsimile edition of the guitar music of Sor and also re-engraved in volume 2 of my edition of the New Complete Works for Guitar of Sor. Go to www.tecla.com and search “Grand Solo.”
Manuscript AMM 2983 of the Monasterio de Montserrat
This manuscript is reproduced in facsimile in Josep Maria Mangado’s Fernando Sor volume 2. It includes our piece with the title “Grande Sinfonía del celevre Sort”. The manuscript is hard to date. It has many places where notes that are low in our three earliest known sources have been removed or put up an octave, so it does not belong to the family of those three earliest known sources. It may derive from Meissonnier’s 1825-27 edition, but in that case one wonders why it does not bear the title Grand Solo. The word “Sinfonía” is the same word that appears in an advertisement cited by Mangado in the Gazeta de Barcelona on 1 November 1806 and then a few days later in the Diario de Madrid for “gran sinfonia de Sors”, but whether this manuscript has any connection with that advertisement is not known.
The Cortabarría manuscript
This manuscript also has places where notes that are low in Castro have been removed or put up an octave, so that it also does not appear to belong to the family of our three earliest known sources.
Today’s performers
Let’s move into our own day and ask what editions for this piece are available and recommendable to modern performers.
The Castro edition is ready to play on a seven-string guitar without any adaptation. It is likely to be the form in which Sor created this work. Musically the Castro edition when played on a seven-string guitar has rich sonority because of the extra bass notes which come with having seven strings, a sonority which is not in the later Porro or Meissonnier six-string versions in which many low notes have been removed or moved up an octave. So if you have a seven-string guitar or can get access to one, it is the Castro edition which I would recommend for performance.
The Castro edition is available in a re-engraved edition on the Tecla Editions website (at www.tecla.com search “Grand Solo”). It is also available in facsimile in my 1982 facsimile edition of Sor’s guitar works, or it can be downloaded free from Gallica (in Gallica search Fernando Sor).
If, however, you are going to play this piece on a six-string guitar, then you have the choice between the Porro edition of 1811-12 or the 1825-27 Meissonnier edition. I strongly prefer the Porro edition not only because it is earlier but also because of its interesting dynamics, as I explain below.
The Porro edition is available in facsimile and also re-engraved in the 2016 printed edition of the Porro version made by Mario Torta and Frédéric Zigante.
The Meissonnier 1825-27 edition is available in facsimile in my 1982 facsimile edition of the guitar music of Sor and also re-engraved in volume 2 of my edition of the New Complete Works for Guitar of Sor and online at www.tecla.com, search “Grand Solo”.
I am personally enthusiastic for the Porro edition because it is sensible, because Porro was a competent musician known for his method for the guitar and for many editions of music, because he added “nuances” and even underlined their importance with his unusual comment “Observez bien les Nuances”, and because Porro’s edition, dating as it does from 1811-12, comes to us from well within Sor’s lifetime and even from the period within which Sor no doubt composed this piece, that is to say before he left Spain in 1813, and that is not the case with Meissonnier’s editions.
There is another reason why Porro’s edition is very special. In Porro’s edition we see from the existence of the “nuances” and from the unusual instruction “Observez bien les Nuances” that Porro put much thought into the interpretation of the work, and it is splendid to note that his edition of 1811-12 with its “nuances” comes to us from the age of early Romanticism in France, the age of Chateaubriand, the age of “vagues de passion” (‘waves of passion’), so that Porro’s “nuances” take us straight into the atmosphere of that time. What exactly do those “nuances” say? Well, there are many fz, that is to say giving emphasis to a particular beat, sometimes an off-beat chord. And there are many contrasts between p and f and at least once ff followed immediately by pp. So I don’t think it is in any way an exaggeration to say that here in Porro’s 1811-12 adaptation of Sor’s Grand Solo we see a musical parallel to emotional declamation in speech or poetry of that pre-Romantic age in France. It’s interesting, and it’s a challenge to today’s guitar performers to interpret this Porro edition of Grand Solo while observing, as Porro wrote, those “nuances”. Read some Chateaubriand before you play!
Also, the years 1811 to 1812 when it is thought that Porro’s edition of this Spanish piece was published, were years of peace between France and Spain when most of the disasters of the Peninsular War had not yet happened, so it was a good moment for Porro’s positive edition to have been created and published.
If you are thinking of playing either the Porro or the Meissonnier version on a six-string guitar, bear in mind that both of them are later adaptations in which quite a few of the sonorous basses in what was almost certainly an original piece for seven-string guitar by Sor have been cast aside. But the “nuances” of Porro make his edition much more interesting than that of Meissonnier which has few dynamic indications and shows no sign of having anything to do with “waves of passion”.
However, if you want the original form of the work in the way that Sor probably composed it, then the Castro edition played on a seven-string guitar is the closest you are going to be able to get.
Thanks to friends and colleagues, especially John Doan, for listening to my arguments and commenting on them.
For details about how to find the various editions mentioned in this article, and for possible updates on this matter – let’s say someone gives a spectacular performance of Grand Solo on a seven-string guitar – go to the Tecla Editions website www.tecla.com and search “Grand Solo”.
Brian Jeffery
